Worship, Connect, Serve - Student Style! Part I

Worship, Connect, Serve 


I absolutely love Peace's Mission Statement. I love that the middle school Confirmation kids I teach know what it means and the "well-experienced" generation I teach on Tuesday mornings know what it means. I mean, how much easier can you sum up what the Christian life and the Church as a whole should look like?


Seriously, it could really be like a Christian person's LIFE mission statement. So speaking of that...


"Worship, Connect, Serve" - it looks great on paper, it's easy to memorize, and as a staff we love to see our ministries fit neatly under these three ideas, but how do we actually LIVE "Worship, Connect, Serve." In my mind...it's so much more than just a "Sunday morning-thing" or a "church-thing". 


After teaching on the mission statement for three weeks to my 7th grade confirmation class, I am gaining more and more of an idea of what it means to really live this. You know...I should have just had my students write this blog as the matter of fact ;) because I know they totally get this. 


Worship - Part I: 
I'm sure to most people, including myself, the word "worship" brings to mind a Sunday morning worship service (of which ever style you prefer, at our church the options are traditional and contemporary), with other people present and the "traditional" elements of a worship service, Holy Communion, Confession & Absolution, Songs (Hymns, praise, etc.) and so on. Dictionary.com states that worship is, "reverent honor and homage paid to God" 
Worship is referred to numerous times in the Bible - actually, in some way, it's referred to 254 times in the NIV! No wonder it's in our mission statement. Check out these verses on "living" out worship:

Job 1:19-21 (New International Version)

¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
 ²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:
   “Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
   and naked I will depart.^[a]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
   may the name of the LORD be praised.”

We don't just worship God when things are going well - Job's family and possessions had just been taken away from him, he STILL worshiped! 

Jeremiah 22:8-9 (New International Version)

 ⁸ “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’ ⁹ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”


We are warned against numerous time in the Prophets against the worship of FALSE gods. Even non-Christians worship...so we must be careful what we are Christians are worshiping in our everyday lives. 

Romans 12:1-3 (New International Version)

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
 ³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

Isn't this awesome? Worship is a LIFESTYLE! It's not confined to the church building, Sunday mornings, midweek, etc. It's something we can do all the time, and something that God really calls  us to do all the time! 


So...worship, how do YOU live it? 


Stay tuned for Connect and Serve! Until then...


Worshiping the One,
Steph